In recent years, there is widely used a technique for acquiring position information on a current position by a measurement using a global positioning system (GPS) employing a satellite. For example, there is disclosed in Patent Document 1 a technique in which a cell phone includes a GPS function to display a peripheral map and landmark information of a current position based on the current position information.
Further, a cell phone or digital camera can specify a photographing position by the GPS function and add position information on the photographing position to photographed image data. There is disclosed in Patent Document 2-5 and the like a technique utilizing the image data containing the position information photographed in this manner.
Patent Document 2 discloses therein a technique for direct printing capable of displaying a photographing position, landmark information and the like based on the position information recorded in an image photographed by a digital camera and applying to narrowing or searching for an image to be printed.
Further, Patent Document 3 discloses therein a technique in which a digital camera displays a map containing information on the landmarks near the photographing position based on the position information recorded in the photographed image. The digital camera holds a database for map images or landmark information. The digital camera can extract a map image containing the information on the landmarks near the photographing position from the database based on the position information recorded in the photographed image when displaying the photographed image, and can display the map image together with the photographed image.
Further, Patent Document 4 discloses therein a technique for searching for landmarks near the photographing position based on the position information recorded in the image photographed by a digital camera.
Further, Patent Document 5 discloses therein a technique for utilizing the GPS function of the digital camera to search for an image photographed near a current position from among the previously-photographed images recorded in a memory.
In this manner, the digital camera mounts the GPS function thereon to add position information to the photographed image, thereby utilizing the position information for displaying or searching for the photographed image.
The image photographed by a digital camera or the like is not only displayed on a display of the digital camera but also utilized in an external device or the services over the network, and consequently a service form utilizing the photographed images is being extended.
For example, since a display on the digital camera is small and has restriction on batteries, a user can enjoy the images photographed by the digital camera to be displayed on a large-screen TV or personal computer. The images photographed by the digital camera can be uploaded and publicized on an image sharing service site over the Internet, for example. The images photographed by other person's digital camera, which are publicized on such an image sharing service site, can be downloaded and acquired.